Stories of Malawi

"Grace" is a teenager pursuing her life's dream: to graduate from high school, attend medical school, and become a doctor. In America, such dreams are commonplace, but in Malawi this is a big dream. Many orphaned girls are encouraged to drop out of school to take care of younger siblings and some are pushed into marriage early. Read more...

 
Ellen Schell's Malawi Diary
Ellen Schell, International Programs Director

Thursday July 7, 2011 Microfinance Project "Driving out to where this clinic operates took quite some time, over an hour. You go through Mulanje BOMA, drive around 20-30 minutes to the trading center at Mwalamulanje (which means the "Rock of Mulanje"). The trading center sits at the foot of a particularly rocky prominence of the mountain. . . read more

Monday July 11, 2011 Mkanda Mobile Clinic "We drove to Luchenza in Thyolo and stopped at the microfinance office where we met with Michael Nampanda, the Project Officer, Feston Mbera, the accountant, the new credit clerk Hardwell Kapasuka, and Esther Munyawa who also works on the accounts and serves as a credit clerk. . . read more

Tuesday July 12, 2011 Goat buying in the villages "I have described the goat pass on project above, and today I went with GAIA staff to actually purchase the goats and transfer them to beneficiaries. . . read more

Monday, July 18, 2011 Visit with KCN Nursing students "We met with a group of about 40 KCN first and second year students. I asked them to tell me about the GAIA scholarship and what it had meant to them. . . read more

Thursday January 29, 2009 Chitakale Mobile Clinic and Mulanje villages "I spent today with the Chitakale mobile clinics and it was an inspiring experience. We headed out a dirt road about 30 minutes to a clearing with a building that the community built for home based care classes. This is used as a site for the clinics. It has a large room. . . read more

Friday January 30, 2009 Muloza Mobile Clinic "After reaching Mulanje, we headed on a road to the East and South and climbed 40 minutes up a very rough dirt road, high into the hills opposite Mulanje Mountain. We stopped at a Catholic church at the edge of the road, and, stepping over the ditch that edged the road. . . read more

Thursday February 5, 2009 Visit to the Microloan project "We visited the microloan project in Luchenza. I met with all of the staff in the Luchenza office: Michael Nampanda, the project officer, Esther and Douglas, the credit clerks, Feston the bookkeeper, and Stella, the office assistant. Of the original group of 220. . . read more